Saturday, December 15, 2007

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (December 15,2007) - Any plans and attempts to adopt the new Bosnian Constitution hastily, behind the closed doors, are against the state interests of Bosnia and threaten to slow down or completely stop the already commenced reform processes necessary for signing the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA),press release from the Cabinet of Bosnian Presidency Member Dr Haris Silajdžić said.

"Two years ago, Bosnia was pulled into the nontransparent negotiations on constitutional solutions, without a public debate and without the expert, media or nongovernmental sector participation. That approach resulted in the constitutional amendments package threatening Bosnia to be reduced to a two-entity union, whose state institutions could be extinguished with the less then 22% Bosnian State Parliament members’ will, from one people and one entity," Bosnian Presidency Member Dr Haris Silajdžić said.

"The Council of Europe, the European Parliament and the Venice Commission assessed that the approach is completely inadequate considering the volume and the importance of the necessary changes. These institutions stated precisely that the new Bosnian Constitution must be reached only trough a democratic and a transparent process, that would include a wide range of society and the series of domestic and foreign experts, in which the quality of the solution should have an advantage over the speed of their adoption," Dr Silajdžić said.

"The need for a more thorough and a more careful approach to drafting the new Bosnian Constitution was particularly emphasized with the fact that the entire region has been going trough a political turmoil phase due to the Kosovo status, and Bosnia’s interests must not and will no be subjected to any “situation in the region”. The Constitution Bosnia will receive now will designate its future and the future of its citizens over the next few decades, and we can take up the negotiations on the substance of the Constitution only when all factors that directly or indirectly pressure in course of accepting the solutions that endanger the strategic interests of Bosnia are removed," Bosnian Presidency Member Dr Haris Silajdžić said.

"We have not received any invitation for the talks on the Bosnian Constitution. An informal invitation for a meeting in Brussels was sent, but only in regard to meeting the additional requirements for signing SAA, like PBS reform and public administration reform. Additionally, Dr Silajdžić, as a SBiH President, at the meeting of six political parties representatives two days ago, stressed out that it was necessary at this moment to talk exclusively about establishing the framework process for drafting the new Bosnian Constitution, not about the substance of the Constitution, and without any prejudice or conditioning in regard to the final solution," press release from the Cabinet of Bosnian Presidency Member Dr Haris Silajdžić said.

BELGRADE, Serbia (December 15,2007) - In an interview with the Serbian radio station "B92", the International Community's High Representative in Bosnia Miroslav Lajčak said Serbia is no longer interfering in Bosnia’s internal affairs.

Lajcak had previously spoken of this and other matters with Serbia's President Boris Tadić in Belgrade.

After the meeting, Lajčak told B92 that he had informed Tadić of the political situation in Bosnia and had expressed his pleasure at Bosnian leaders’ devotion to European integration.

Asked whether he expected the outcome of the Kosovo crisis to have ramifications for Bosnia, he said he did not, stressing that the country had its own “challenges and problems,“ and that it was not a “hostage to Kosovo.“

“There is not a single reason for Bosnia to be tied in with Kosovo, though I cannot ignore the fact that Kosovo is a part of the region and that it will create a climate in the region. In that sense, everything is linked, but not directly. It’s all in the hands of Bosnia’s politicians,“ Lajčak said.

VISEGRAD, Bosnia (December 15,2007) - Agents of the Bosnian State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA). have detained a former leader of the genocidal paramilitary formations of the Serbians living in Bosnia Momir Savic who is considered to have committed crimes against humanity in in the eastern Bosnian town of Visegrad,during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

The Bosnian authorities said they picked up Serbian war criminal Momir Savic,55, in Visegrad.The Bosnian State Prosecutor issued a warrant for Savic's arrest on suspicion of war crimes against Bosnian civilians in the Visegrad area in 1992.

Serbian war criminal Momir Savic was handed over to the Bosnian State Prosecutor, which will examine him and decide on the filing of a custody motion with the Bosnian State Court.

Representatives of the Bosnian association of genocide victims from Visegrad said that, during the Serbian aggression against Bosnia,Serbian war criminal Momir Savic acted in cooperation with Serbian war criminal Milan Lukic, who is in The Hague, waiting for his trial to commence.

During the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia, Serbian war criminal Milan Lukic was commander of the "Beli orlovi" ("White Eagles") paramilitary group. The genocidal Serbian paramilitary group is associated with a number of crimes committed against Bosnian civilians in Visegrad municipality.

He is charged, inter alia, with having committed, together with other members of the genocidal Serbian aggressor's formations, a number of murders, pillage and rape.

According to available information, Serbian war criminal Momir Savic was leader of the "Garavi sokak" ("Sooty Alley") paramilitary group, which allegedly functioned in cooperation with Lukic's group.

Serbian war criminal Momir Savic is associated with the same crimes. His name is mentioned in the reports made by UN human rights reporters. Witnesses spoke about him at the trial of Serbian war criminal Mitar Vasiljevic, who was sentenced by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague to 15 years' imprisonment.

SOFIA, Bulgaria (December 15,2007) - “The World Bank will commit at least $200 million in lending for projects in Bosnia in the four years starting in fiscal year 2008 as part of its new strategy for the Southeastern country, the Bank’s Country Manager for Bosnia, Marco Mantovanelli, said.

Mantovanelli said in a recent interview on the sidelines of the 10th CEI Summit Economic Forum, organized by the Central European Initiative and Bulgaria Economic Forum in the Bulgarian capital Sofia that the World Bank’s new strategy for Bosnia had two main strategic pillars - improving the efficiency of government spending and creating better business environment and conditions for growth.

"Now Bosnia is three times above the income per capita level for International Development Association (IDA) funds.In the next cycle of the assistance strategy, Bosnia will gravitate to the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). This means it will still have access to IDA funds in the next four years but they will gradually decrease and the IBRD will kick in,’ Mantovanelli said.

"There is still a long way to go before there is a fully coordinated fiscal approach,’ Mantovanelli said.He also said there were problems in Bosnia regarding labor mobility, which is linked to social transfers.

‘Right now there are cases of people who live in one of the two autonomous regions and earn social benefits on the other side - this creates obstacles to labor mobility,’ Mantovanelli said.

He said the World Bank was ready to support those reforms as long as Bosnian leaders show commitment to implement the October declaration.”